The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912, Part 43

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1072

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Laurits F. Rasmussen was educated in Denmark and remained in his native coun- try until April 22, 1888, when he came to America, arriving in May of that year. He then came directly to Walla Walla, Wash- ington, reaching that state on the 21st of May. He worked on farms in that neigh- borhood for eleven years, and during this time purchased eighty acres of land in Ore- gon and resided on the same for three years, after which he sold out and was engaged in the lumber business until 1897. At that date he again took up farming, making a specialty of raising fruit. After two years he moved to Portland and was for a short time again engaged in the lumber business and later was in the employ of the police department for a time. Subsequently he was engaged in a wholesale grocery store in Port- land for seven years. On August 1, 1911, he opened up his general merchandise store at Wichita, which is the only mercantile store in the town. He is here meeting with excellent success and has an extensive pat- ronage.

On the 14th of November, 1900, Mr. Ras- mussen married Miss Lydia A. Rivers, a native of Clackamas county, Oregon, and a daughter of Israel and Hannah N. Rivers, both of whom are deceased. The father passed away in September, 1907, and the mother in 1909. Mrs. Rasmussen is the youngest of a large family of children. To Mr. and Mrs. Rasmussen has been born one son, Peder, whose natal day is September 2, 1901.

Politically Mr. Rasmussen is a democrat and he served as road supervisor of Umatilla county for two years and as deputy sheriff for two years. Fraternally he is a member of the Eagles, the Foresters of America, the Shepherds of America, the Companion of Foresters and he also belongs to the Danish Aid Society of Portland. He is a faithful member of the Lutheran church. Mr. Ras- mussen has never regretted the fact that he sought a home in America, for he has here met with good success. He has ever been active and energetic and his advancement in life is not the outcome of propitious cir- cumstances but the honest reward of labor, good management, ambition and energy.

SILAS D. COATS. With the opening of the year 1912 one of the most venerable couples residing in Polk county was Mr. and Mrs. Silas D. Coats. The former was then a retired ranchman and miner, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Ere the cele- bration of another birthday came to him he had passed away and three days later the demise of his wife occurred. He was one of the pioneers on the Pacific coast, iden- tified with the early development of Oregon as a sheep-raiser, farmer and miner. His birth occurred in Ontario county, New York, October 2, 1828, his parents having been Erastus and Mary (La Munion) Coats. the former a native of Massachusetts, and the latter of Rhode Island. In their family were three children, Carlos, Hannah M. and Silas D. The father removed with his family

from New York to Ohio and in the latter state engaged in farming until 1852, when he visited Michigan on a business trip and while there became ill and died. The mother continued to reside in Ohio until she passed away about twenty-five years after her hus- band's death.

Silas D. Coats was reared under the pa- rental roof and remained at home until 1852, being at that time in his twenty-fourth year. It was on the 11th of March that he started westward with a pair of Canadian ponies, which he drove as far as Rock Island, Illi- nois. There he sold his team and paid one hundred dollars for the privilege of join- ing an ox train en route to Yreka, California. Arriving at that place, he engaged in min- ing for two years, during which period he made seven thousand dollars. He next bought a pack team of twenty-two mules and man- aged a pack train between Crescent and Yreka for a year. Subsequently he took up land on the outskirts of Yreka and planted twenty acres in garden selling the remainder in town lots. Eventually, however, he dis- posed of his property there and took up a ranch in Shasta valley, purchased cows and engaged in the cattle-raising business for thirty years. He next removed to Umpqua, Oregon, for the purpose of educating his chil- dren and for five years continued his resi- dence there. He later spent four years in Umatilla, Oregon, and then removed to the vicinity of Eugene, purchasing one hundred and seventy-three acres of land, to which he afterward added tracts to the amount of twelve hundred acres. Thereon he engaged extensively in sheep-raising for five years, after which he went to Grant county, where he remained for three years, during which time he raised cattle. Finally he removed to Monmouth and retired from active business life, for old age had come upon him and he felt it meet that he should spend his re- maining days in well earned rest.

On the 8th of January, 1858, Mr. Coats was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary (Ivers) Reynolds, the widow of Harrison Reynolds. She was born April 28, 1827, and crossed the plains in the same ox train with Mr. Coats. By her first marriage she had four children, Adeline, Elmira, Charles and Palmer. Mr. and Mrs. Coats became the parents of four children: Erastus, deceased; Silas, living in Monmouth; Carlos, who has passed away; and Mary, who is now Mrs. W. O. Meador.

In politics Mr. Coats was a democrat and for fifteen years held the office of marshal. He was familiar with every phase of pio- neer life as represented in the development of the far west and he always bore an active and helpful part in the upbuilding of the different sections in which he lived, for he

was a progressive and enterprising citizen, whose methods were ever honorable and whose labors were resultant. He enjoyed the high regard of all with whom he came in contact and when he passed away on tlie 5th of January, 1912, many there were who spoke of him in terms of high regard and friendship. His widow, living only three days longer, died on the 8th of January, 1912,

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on the fifty-fourth anniversary of their mar- riage, and thus the couple, united so long in life, were separated for only a brief period in death.

ROBERT A. DUNCAN, who is the manager of the general merchandise store of the firm of Duncan & Cruse Brothers at Estacada, was born in Washington, May 1, 1878, the son of James and Carrie B. (Burton) Dun- can. The father was a native of Scotland, and the mother of the state of California, and they were married in Washington, the father having come to America in 1854. On his arrival in this country he first settled at New York, and there was employed in railroad work until 1878, when he removed to Washington, where until 1893 he was superintendent of the rolling stock of the Northern Pacific Railroad. He then came to Oregon settling in Clackamas county, where he is living retired. In his family were five children: Charles, who is a farmer near Estacada; Edward, deceased; Robert A., of this review; Lillie, deceased; and Isabel, who is attending high school at Portland.

Robert A. Duncan received his early edu- cation in the public schools, and started out in life for himself at the age of fourteen, when he went into partnership with his father in the grocery business at The Dalles, Oregon. Selling the grocery store after two years he located in Portland, where he worked for six months in a sawmill. Subsequently he went to Idaho where he engaged in packing from Boise City to Thunder Moun- tains, and at the same time he operated a general mercantile store at Thunder Moun- tains. Two years later he returned to Port- land, and for one year attended the Holmes Business College, after which for two years he was employed in fancy card writing and drawing. Then being accidentally hurt he was forced to retire from active work for two years, after which he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and traveled for the Peate Brothers Manufacturing Company for two years. He was then a traveling salesman for the Hunt Baking Powder Company of Minne- apolis, Minnesota, but after one year was again in the employ of the Peate Brothers Company of Kansas City. Two years later he returned to Oregon, settling at Estacada, where for one year he was in the government forest service, and then engaged for himself in the real-estate and bond business in Port- land. In July, 1911, he bought a share of the Cruse Brothers general mercantile store, which has since been operated under the firm name of Duncan & Cruse Brothers, and he is now the general manager of the same. Mr. Duncan still handles real estate and has options on various tracts of land, one of which is a fourteen thousand acre cattle ranch in eastern Oregon, and he also owns numerous stocks and bonds.

In his political views Mr. Duncan is a republican, but he has never sought nor de- sired office, preferring to give all his time and attention to his business affairs. Fra- ternally he is a member of the Lone Pine Lodge, No. 53, A. F. & A. M., and is now

serving as junior warden of the same. He is identified with the Estacada Garfield Grange, is a member of the Homesteaders Order at Des Moines, Iowa, and has filled all chairs in the local lodges of these two orders. He is a popular merchant, a well known and highly honored young man in Estacada, and all interests which tend to promote the public welfare receive his in- dorsement and support.

HENRY A. TRAYLOR, one of the well known and influential citizens of Elkton, is now living retired but in former years was actively identified with both industrial and agricultural pursuits. His birth occurred in Roseburg, Douglas county, Oregon, on the 29th of December, 1861, his parents being James N. and Eliza (Woodcock) Traylor, the former a native of Litchfield, Illinois, and the latter of Kentucky. It was in 1853 that James N. Traylor crossed the plains with ox teams in General Brooks' train and, arriv- ing in Oregon, settled on the Molalla in the Willamette valley. He was a volunteer in the Rogue River and Modoc wars in 1855 un- der the command of General Ross, serving throughout the war. In 1848, when but four years of age, Eliza Woodcock accompanied her parents on their journey across the plains with ox teams. The party had many skir- mishes with the Indians and several of their number were wounded but fortunately not fatally. Willis Woodcock, the maternal grandfather of our subject, took up a dona- tion claim on the banks of the Molalla in Clackamas county. Following his marriage James N. Traylor resided in Clackamas county for twenty-seven years. He superintended the construction of the Oregon City locks on the Willamette river, and subsequently pur- chased a farm which he successfully operated for fourteen years. After the expiration of that period he entered the service of the Southern Pacific Railway Company under Ben Holladay and was made superintendent of the bridge building gang, acting in that capacity for seven years. In 1878 he removed to southern Oregon, locating in Jackson county, where he engaged in farming. Six years later he came to Douglas county and bought a small farm within a mile and a half of Elkton, residing thereon until he passed away on the 31st of January, 1909. His wife was called to her final rest on the 7th of Decem- ber, 1877. In the death of James N. Traylor the community lost one of its respected and representative citizens and one whose labors had contributed in substantial measure to the early upbuilding and development of the Sun- set state.

Henry A. Traylor was reared at home and obtained his education in the common schools. At the early age of fourteen he began learn- ing the blacksmith's trade and after complet- ing his apprenticeship worked at that occupa- tion for seven consecutive years. He also learned the carpenter's trade under the direc- tion of his father and has worked intermit- tently at both blacksmithing and carpenter- ing to the present time. He has likewise bought and sold farm lands and has owned .

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several properties but disposed of his last farm in 1909 and has since lived retired at Elkton. His is one of the neatest and most attractive homes in the Umpqua valley.

In 1885 Mr. Traylor was united in mar- riage to Miss Dora Heckathorne, a native of Jackson county, Oregon, and a daughter of Jeremiah Heckathorne, who crossed the plains from Indiana to this state in 1854. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Traylor have been born eleven children, eight of whom still survive, as fol- lows: Myrtle, who is the wife of Alex Saw- yer and resides in the Umpqua valley in Doug- las county; Thomas and Grace, both at home; Ethel, who gave her hand in marriage to D. O. Weatherly, of Elkton, Oregon; Ernest, Gerald, Jesse and Henry R., all of whom are still under the parental roof.

Mr. Traylor gives his political allegiance to the democracy but has never sought nor desired the honors and emoluments of office.

Fraternally he is identified with the follow- ing organizations: Elkton Lodge, F. & A. M .; Elkton Lodge, No. 259, I. O. O. F .; Drain Camp, No. 192, W. O. W .; and Elkton Lodge, M. B. A. Both he and his wife have spent their entire lives in this state, and therefore this record cannot fail to prove of interest to many of our readers.

GEORGE W. AGER. The birthplace of George W. Ager was a town bearing the fam- ily name and so called in honor of his father, Jerome Bonaparte Ager, who was born in New York in 1829. He went to Cali- fornia in 1851, crossing the plains with ox teams. During the first year of his resi- dence on the coast he engaged in mining at Cape Blanco and in 1852 returned east with seventeen thousand dollars which he had mined. In 1853 he crossed the plains again and spent the rest of his life in Siskiyou county, being closely identified with the material development and progress of the district in which he lived. He was married at Yreka to Miss Lucy Jane Axtell, who was born in Wisconsin in 1848 and by way of the isthmus route came to the Pacific coast with her parents. From Red Bluff she had to ride horseback to Yreka, for there were no wagon roads at that time. Following their marriage Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Ager spent the rest of their lives in Siskiyou county upon a ranch and he was well known as a stockman of that locality. The town of Ager was named in his honor and became a shipping point for a large tributary district in northern California and southern Oregon. He was a prominent and influential resident of that locality and his labors contributed much to its improvement. He died November 14, 1900, and was survived by his wife until February, 1911. Their family numbered five sons and six daughters and with the excep- tion of one daughter all are now living.

George W. Ager, the fifth child, made his home with his parents until he came to Kla- math county in 1900 and in the meantime worked on the ranch with his father. He is now the owner of one hundred and twenty acres in his home place, together with two hundred acres about a mile distant near

Rainier. He now has a good property and many of the improvements thereon were made by him. His farm is devoted to the raising of both grain and stock and he has a good orchard of two hundred trees.

In 1900 Mr. Ager was united in marriage to Miss Blanche Stearns, a native of Kla- math county and a daughter of O. A. Stearns, a sketch of whom appears on another page of this work. Our subject and his wife have. three children: Irma, Lowell and Julian. Mr. Ager has always lived in this district, spend- ing his youth and early manhood in Siskiyou' county and since that time residing in Kla- math county. He has been an interested witness of the work of improvement and progress and he is numbered among those whose labors as a farmer and stockman are contributing to the improvement and sub- stantial upbuilding of his part of the state.

FRANK VARRELMANN. Occasionally this humdrum and workaday world gives to a man the unique gift of a stirring and ad- venturous career. This boon has fallen to the lot of Frank Varrelmann, whose life is a romance of the sea. He is a man who has "gone down to the sea in ships," has pene- trated to distant ports of the world, has been near death and close to life many times, was one of the pioneers in the settlement of the great American northwest and has lived to retire in honor in the sixty-ninth year of his age. Mr. Varrelmann was born in Hanover, Germany, August 4, 1844, and is the son of Fritz and Catherine (Rippe) Var- relmann, both of whom lived and died in their native country. The father was a prominent educator and interested in school expansion. He was a teacher or "kuester" in the public schools in his native country, under a life appointment by the government. He gave his energies and activities during his entire career to school expansion and was prominent and honored as a German educator.

Frank Varrelmann was reared at home and continued his studies in the public schools of his native country until he was fourteen years of age. In 1858 he shipped aboard a Bremen vessel and made three trips to New Orleans. On the third journey he ran away from his ship and stopped in New Orleans, where he obtained employment on an Ameri- can sailing vessel, the J. P. Whitney, and from November 1 to March 1, 1861, he was ship's keeper on this vessel. On March 1, 1861, he sailed for Kronstadt, Russia. While passing through the Gulf of Mexico the deck of the ship was swept clean by the heavy seas and Mr. Varrelmann was washed overboard. He was rescued by the mate and they continued their journey, reaching Kronstadt in record time and returning via Copenhagen, Denmark, to Liverpool, England, where they stopped and the captain discharged his entire crew with the exception of Mr. Varrelmann and one other. At this time he had the intention of laying up his ship on account of the break- ing out of the Civil war in the United States, but subsequently he got a cargo of coal to Rio Janeiro and employed another crew to make that journey, still retaining Mr. Varrel-

FRANK VARRELMANN

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mann in his service. The return journey was made via the West Indies and the island of St. Thomas, a Danish colonial possession, where they anchored until the news of the capture of New Orleans reached them. The captain immediately signed a nondescript crew and returned to America, arriving in New Orleans six weeks after the city had been taken. He found ruin and devastation everywhere. He took a cargo of sugar to New York and upon his arrival in that port Mr. Varrelmann left the vessel. He was suffering severely from chills and fever caught in the malarial districts of the south and in order to overcome this shipped on a Nova Scotia brig, on which he sailed for two years. He remained in New York for a long time, sailing out of that port as cook on pilot boats. On leaving this vocation he decided to visit his home in Germany and shipped as cook on a sailing bark to Antwerp and from there went overland to Bremen. After spending about two months he returned to Antwerp, but not being able to get on the crew of a vessel at that place he went to England and finally shipped on an American vessel, the Odessa, and made several trips between Balti- more and ports of France and other countries. He then shipped aboard an English vessel for Cardiff, Wales. From there he went to the West Indies on an American ship and thence returned to Baltimore, Maryland, via Havre, France. In Baltimore he was taken ill with swamp fever and compelled to leave his vessel, on which he had been about two years. After a lingering illness he eventually recovered his health and went to Brooklyn, New York, where he shipped aboard the sail- ing vessel, Fleet Wing, for a voyage around the Horn to San Francisco. The vessel made this journey in one hundred and thirteen days and upon its arrival in California Mr. Varrel- mann resigned his position in order to ship aboard the schooner Enterprise, plying be- tween San Francisco and Gardiner, Oregon. He remained aboard this ship for one year, later spending eighteen months on the Bobo- link, plying between the same seas. He then became a member of the crew of the Pioneer, a fruit vessel operating between Sacramento and San Francisco. On one of its journeys to Marysville. the Pioneer sank and four of the crew were drowned. Mr. Varrelmann es- caped with his life and made his way to safety in a lifeboat. He returned to San Francisco, shipped on the bark General Cobb and sailed for two and one-half years from San Fran- cisco to Seabeck. Eventually he left the ves- sel and came overland to Gardiner in 1873 and in this city he has since made his home. He has been identified with many of the most important commercial enterprises in Douglas county and for three years operated a local hotel in company with a Mr. Kronholm. He has gained much success in mercantile enter- prises and his commercial career has been distinguished by that fearlessness and cour- age which was his principal asset in his sea- faring life. For some time he operated a brewery in Gardiner in partnership with Mr. Kronholm. This partnership was shortly afterward dissolved. Mr. Varrelmann taking

charge of the brewery and Mr. Kronholm of the hotel. Mr. Varrelmann was successful and prominent as a brewer in Gardiner until 1906, when the principles of prohibition were enforced. In that year he abandoned active life and has lived retired in Gardiner since that time.

On April 21, 1881, Mr. Varrelmann was united in marriage to Mrs. Frederick Hartsell, who was in her maidenhood Miss Blanche Elliott, a native of San Francisco. To Mr. and Mrs. Varrelmann have been born five children: Annie Pauline, born January 14, 1882, the wife of Albert Perkins, manager of a salmon cannery at Gardiner; Alfred Thomas, born June 2, 1884, who is a blacksmith in the same city; Franklin Emil, born January 29, 1886, who is employed in the Umpqua Life-saving Station; Charles Wallace, born January 29, 1889, of Hammond, California; and Agnes Blanche, born March 9, 1894, who resides at home. Mrs. Varrelmann also had a son by her former marriage, Frederick William, born October 1, 1879, who was offi- cially adopted by his stepfather. Mrs. Var- relmann is a daughter of Thomas and Jane (Hussey) Elliott. Her father was an old sea captain who followed this line of occu- pation for many years during his life and brought his vessel over tlie Umpqua bar into the port of Gardiner. He subsequently lost his vessel when she parted amidships in the Umpqua river but did not abandon his sea- faring career for many years.

During the last few years of his life Mr. Varrelmann has been actively interested in local politics, and he is a democrat of pro- gressive tendencies. In 1912 the people of Gardiner held an election to incorporate the town but this proposition was defeated, Mr. Varrelmann voting against it, although he was the nominee for mayor at the time. He has been identified with navigation in all its aspects during the greater part of his active life. He has now given up his adventurous career for a well earned repose and with many years of life before him is interesting him- self in the political and business development of the city and will undoubtedly do con- spicuously efficient work in this line before he is eventually summoned to cross the bar.

JOHN MINGER is one of the active and prosperous farmers of Marion county and lives on a tract of forty acres four miles east of Salem. The farm's neat and thrifty ap- pearance indicates Mr. Minger's careful super- vision and his use of practical methods in its cultivation. He was born in Switzerland,- December 19, 1851, his parents being Bene- dict and Christina Minger, also natives of Switzerland. The father was a stone mason and contractor and, being an unusually strong and healthy man, he followed these occupa- tions throughout his life, his death occurring at the age of eighty-three years, in 1899. The mother passed away when her son John was but a child. To Mr. and Mrs. Benedict Minger six children were born, all of whom are residing in Switzerland excepting the subject of this sketch. The others are, Benedict, Frederick, Annie, Adolph, and Eliza.

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Jolın Minger received his education in the common schools of Switzerland and attended the high school for one year. After lie dis- continued his studies he enlisted as a recruit in the army for a short period of service and then worked with his father as a stone-cutter for a year and a half. Subsequently he worked in hotels for four years previous to going to France, where he studied languages for a period of three years. Afterward he returned home and again was employed by his father and in hotels until he came to the United States in 1881. His first place of residence was in Allen county, Ohio, where he remained for two years, after which he came to Salem, Oregon. He has since made his home upon his forty acres of highly de- veloped property near that city. In addition to cultivating his farm he has been employed for three and a half years as gardener by ex- Governor J. F. Moody at Salem.

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The centennial history of Oregon, 1811-1912, Part 43

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833- Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company Number of Pages: 1072

Author: Gaston, Joseph, 1833-
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago, The S.J. Clarke publishing company
Number of Pages: 1072